Draw 9, Tuesday Morning, First Few Ends

Alan and I are here together this morning. It's nice to be working with him again.

As we get underway, we both comment that The Brier should have given away tickets to more school groups. The JLC would have more people here and they'd make money on concessions from the kids. In economics, we call that "price discrimination".

We're benched in front of the game between Manitoba - NW/YT, and on the next sheet is the TSN game between Albert and NS. We'll let TSN cover that one.

End #1:

Manitoba has the hammer (oops, the hammer was placed on the team at the start of the game; actually NT has the hammer) and gets an early advantage with misses from the NT front end. As they move to the thirds, Man has three in the edges of the rings, and NT has a corner guard.

Koe (NT skip) rubs the guard on his first shot and is open. Stouton (Skip for Man) removes it but rolls out. Koe draws behind the NT corner guard, forcing Stouton either to draw for one or try a run-back double. He missed the double, jamming and leaving one NT rock in the rings, and Koe draws for two.

NT2, Man 0

End #2:

Alan tells me that Manitoba and Stouton have been curling up a storm so far. Meanwhile on Sheet B, Martin follow last night's performance and misses two shots, leaving NS with a draw for three.

There is a LOT of curl on Sheet A, and the skips are struggling to read it. Both teams have tried to hit and roll a rock in the rings, but don't make their shots. Finally NT makes an intriguing hit on a guard and grabs a bite of the rings at the front, and Man responds with a hit and roll in front of the NT rock at the back of the rings. NT replies with a hit and roll away to the outer 8', another good shot. Mead (Manitoba 3rd) tried to freeze but came up light.

Stouton tried either a double or triple and hit only one. Koe drew to the button, forcing Stouton to hit and stick for one.

NT 2, Man 1

End #3:

Meanwhile on Sheet B, Martin hits and sticks for two: NS 3, Alberta 2

Manitoba starts with a centre guard and rock in the back of the house, and the teams play hit-and-stick on that rock until NT misses and Mead draws for Man to lie three without the hammer. NT (Naugler, 3rd) Freezes to the Man draw that had slipped a tad behind the button. Mead tried to follow that rock but rubbed on the centre guard and stopped just short of the rings. Naugler goes in the other way and freezes to his own rock. Two excellent shots from Naugler.

Stouton made a good in-off and removed one of the reds in the middle along with his own that was near the middle. Koe drew to the edge of the 8', not curling as much as he'd hoped. Stouton hits that one to roll behind a guard. Koe is left with a double for two, but missed the run-back, scoring only 1.

NT 3, Man 1

Meanwhile on Sheet B, the house is FULL of rocks of both colours with skips' last rocks to come. Martin makes a delicate tap, and the NS team takes a bunch of time to talk about it. More in the next post.